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July 14, 2016July 14, 2016

45. Barenaked Ladies: Gordon

From way back in 1992, here’s Gordon, the first full-length from Barenaked Ladies.

In the world I traveled in the early 90s, the sort of sound these guys were making was both new and interesting, but also kind of all over the place. There were other bands, Moxy Fruvous comes to mind, that had the same sort of acoustic, up-tempo fun pop sound. No real complaints here at all. This album has a lot going on, and gets really close to the question of whether it’s music that happens to be funny, or comedy that happens to be musical.

The first five or six tracks, clear through “Brian Wilson” are great pop songs, funny or not, plus everyone’s favorite, “If I Had a Million Dollars.” I like those songs a lot, but the rest of the stuff gets a little tired. It almost seems like they could have put out a really great EP or a shorter LP (this one has 15 tracks and is almost an hour long) and gone for greatness.

I still pull this one out from time to time just because those few songs are so incredibly good.